The Cook, The Thief, etc.
Hey everyone! I don't know if anyone would even bother to read this site anymore it's been so long I've written. Needless to say, my total body makeover is on hold. I'll go into that in a subsequent blog, but I do advise that anyone embarking upon this program refrain from taking trips to NYC or getting sick. Both resulted in huge obstacles for yours truly.
Since I last posted I have begun taking cooking lessons - a gift from my parents and in-laws for my anniversary and they are much appreciated. My lessons are at the Culinary School of the Rockies which is conveniently located in Boulder. It's a full-on chef school as well as a school for amateurs. I am two weeks into it and I have learned a ton and have really enjoyed it. There are 12 students in the class and we meet for 5 hours once a week. Each week we are broken into teams of 4. The first week I was very lucky: I had one experienced cook (a Boulder mom), one clueless girl from Denver named Yoko, and one kind of mean guy, and then there was me. Our chef is Dan Witherspoon and he is awesome - a great teacher, and really funny. He kind of reminds me of Bill Murray. He talked about all the things we would do, then demonstrated everything and then we all practiced.
The first lesson involved knife skills which are much needed by me. We ended up making a provencal vegetable soup with pesto (basically a ton of vegetables all cut up to be the same size with a really yummy tomato and pinenut pesto mixed in to make it hearty), salad with vinagrette, blanched broccoli, rice (the real thing, not boil in the bag), lambchops sauteed in clarified butter with a lemon-parsley compound butter on top, and bananas foster (my fav dessert which only takes 5 minutes to make and involves fire). This is pretty funny as the fire part resulted in a flashback for me of a long ago Thanksgiving where a distant cousin, Michelle, taught me how to "safely" light a bed on fire with a can of hairspray and a lighter. All why my parents were downstairs knoshing on turkey (sorry Mom and Daddy). Not sure where Michelle is now. Hopefully her career as an arsonist somehow got diverted. Anyway, I successfully made all of the above (except the soup) for Thomas Monday nite and the only disasters were a broken glass, a new stove coated in sautee splatter, and gummy rice (which we still both liked).
I had my second lesson this Thursday. I was less fortuitous in my team - it comprised June, an old lady who was an assistant at the school and a potential alzheimer's patient; Wyatt, a wannabe chef with a case of the shakes; and Jim, the resident comic (luckily for me) who's taking the class with his wife. June and Wyatt turned out to be total stress cases. Wyatt drove June to tears over the stuffed mushrooms and at that point Jim and I started surreptitiously gulping the cooking wine. Shockingly, our dinner turned out great. We made stuffed mushrooms (a lot of work), salad with a different vinnagrette, grilled salmon and halibut with a basic beurre blanc sauce (basically a reduced butter, white wine, vinegar, and shallot sauce that is utterly decadent), parsnip puree (I'd never had parsnips but they're quite yummy and sweet - a root vegetable like potatoes), grilled vegetables, and carmel custard. I now know how to make a carmel sauce in about ten minutes that you just want to guzzle. No showy dessert is required...v dangerous.
Anyway, cooking school rocks. If I didn't have a real job all day (and I was a zillionaire), I would just take lessons like this all the time. It is well worth it.
In other news, I finally finished knitting Thomas's scarf (now that winter's over, tho he makes a show of wearing it around the house regardless of weather) and a more decorative one for my mom for mother's day. I liked the way it turned out so much that I'm going to make another one for myself in the same yarn. Hopefully pics will be posted soon. I will use the excuse of tech difficulties, tho mental difficulties play a part as well. It's finals season here in Boulder (CU) and I swear the stress seeps into the whole city. We're all on edge. But graduation and summer are just around the corner. I even spent an hour in the hammock this week. Much needed after last wkend's epic snowstorm which has knocked out my phone.
More on everything (including an update on our mammoth kitchen redesign) in the next entry. And I'd like to wish an early Happy Anniversary to my parents. It's 40 years as of tomorrow. Quite an accomplishment in any day and age. They are a true inspiration to me and I'm extremely lucky to have them.
Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Yo Soy El Army.
Borrowed Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day (courtesy of Eddie): Enslave Tibet!
-sunday
p.s. Hey everyone, checkout Thomas's latest blog entry for some pics of Plan B.
Since I last posted I have begun taking cooking lessons - a gift from my parents and in-laws for my anniversary and they are much appreciated. My lessons are at the Culinary School of the Rockies which is conveniently located in Boulder. It's a full-on chef school as well as a school for amateurs. I am two weeks into it and I have learned a ton and have really enjoyed it. There are 12 students in the class and we meet for 5 hours once a week. Each week we are broken into teams of 4. The first week I was very lucky: I had one experienced cook (a Boulder mom), one clueless girl from Denver named Yoko, and one kind of mean guy, and then there was me. Our chef is Dan Witherspoon and he is awesome - a great teacher, and really funny. He kind of reminds me of Bill Murray. He talked about all the things we would do, then demonstrated everything and then we all practiced.
The first lesson involved knife skills which are much needed by me. We ended up making a provencal vegetable soup with pesto (basically a ton of vegetables all cut up to be the same size with a really yummy tomato and pinenut pesto mixed in to make it hearty), salad with vinagrette, blanched broccoli, rice (the real thing, not boil in the bag), lambchops sauteed in clarified butter with a lemon-parsley compound butter on top, and bananas foster (my fav dessert which only takes 5 minutes to make and involves fire). This is pretty funny as the fire part resulted in a flashback for me of a long ago Thanksgiving where a distant cousin, Michelle, taught me how to "safely" light a bed on fire with a can of hairspray and a lighter. All why my parents were downstairs knoshing on turkey (sorry Mom and Daddy). Not sure where Michelle is now. Hopefully her career as an arsonist somehow got diverted. Anyway, I successfully made all of the above (except the soup) for Thomas Monday nite and the only disasters were a broken glass, a new stove coated in sautee splatter, and gummy rice (which we still both liked).
I had my second lesson this Thursday. I was less fortuitous in my team - it comprised June, an old lady who was an assistant at the school and a potential alzheimer's patient; Wyatt, a wannabe chef with a case of the shakes; and Jim, the resident comic (luckily for me) who's taking the class with his wife. June and Wyatt turned out to be total stress cases. Wyatt drove June to tears over the stuffed mushrooms and at that point Jim and I started surreptitiously gulping the cooking wine. Shockingly, our dinner turned out great. We made stuffed mushrooms (a lot of work), salad with a different vinnagrette, grilled salmon and halibut with a basic beurre blanc sauce (basically a reduced butter, white wine, vinegar, and shallot sauce that is utterly decadent), parsnip puree (I'd never had parsnips but they're quite yummy and sweet - a root vegetable like potatoes), grilled vegetables, and carmel custard. I now know how to make a carmel sauce in about ten minutes that you just want to guzzle. No showy dessert is required...v dangerous.
Anyway, cooking school rocks. If I didn't have a real job all day (and I was a zillionaire), I would just take lessons like this all the time. It is well worth it.
In other news, I finally finished knitting Thomas's scarf (now that winter's over, tho he makes a show of wearing it around the house regardless of weather) and a more decorative one for my mom for mother's day. I liked the way it turned out so much that I'm going to make another one for myself in the same yarn. Hopefully pics will be posted soon. I will use the excuse of tech difficulties, tho mental difficulties play a part as well. It's finals season here in Boulder (CU) and I swear the stress seeps into the whole city. We're all on edge. But graduation and summer are just around the corner. I even spent an hour in the hammock this week. Much needed after last wkend's epic snowstorm which has knocked out my phone.
More on everything (including an update on our mammoth kitchen redesign) in the next entry. And I'd like to wish an early Happy Anniversary to my parents. It's 40 years as of tomorrow. Quite an accomplishment in any day and age. They are a true inspiration to me and I'm extremely lucky to have them.
Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Yo Soy El Army.
Borrowed Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day (courtesy of Eddie): Enslave Tibet!
-sunday
p.s. Hey everyone, checkout Thomas's latest blog entry for some pics of Plan B.
posted by Sunday at
7:06 PM
3 Comments:
Glad you're back on the bumpersticker track. They are a treat. Love the tales from the kitchen--esp. your latest partners. love, kk
By
Anonymous, at 5/12/2005 7:43 AM
I think your blog is great! I always read it. More, more, more. . .
By
Anonymous, at 5/16/2005 3:18 PM
I think your blog is great! I always read it. More, more, more. . .
By
Anonymous, at 5/16/2005 3:18 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home